The whistle before the wedding

Saturday, Jan 01, 2011

Gulf News

Website offers brides-to-be a roadmap to plan and organise for their big day

Dubai Receiving her wedding proposal last June, 24-year-old Mona couldn’t wait for the happiest day of her life, but a greater part of her was worried about how to put together the wedding.

“I had friends and family members who went through the process, but the day that I realised I had to run around for my own wedding cards, band, dress, all the minor details that I never thought about, I really got scared. I just didn’t know where to start from,” exclaimed bride-to-be Mona.

Mona was not alone in facing such an ordeal, many girls in her situation felt the same attack of excitement and trepidation about their upcoming wedding day. Online based businesses such as Yebab.com, which was founded in 2008, could come at the right moment to provide a free, un-complicated wedding planning portal that is just a click away.

“We met some girls who weren’t just confused about what wedding hall to book or wedding dress to buy, some girls came to us not knowing where to buy the simplest necessities such as new clothes!” said Murshed Ahmad, CEO and cofounder of Yebab.com.

Whistle of success

Yebab, which in Arabic means a loud celebratory whistle that Arab women make at weddings to express their joy and happiness, is an online wedding planning portal targeting prospective brides in the UAE, whether Emirati or other Arab nationalities.

“Our main target was Emirati brides-to-be initially, that’s why the website’s language is in the Emirati dialect in order for it to be more inviting to the users and more comfortable. But we are currently planning on introducing the website in English as well to cater to the English-speaking expatriates residing in the UAE,” said Mareyah Ahmad, Business Development Manager and cofounder of Yebab.

Weddings are a serious business in the UAE, according to study that was admittedly conducted by the Yebab team; the industry is estimated to cost around Dh2 billion annually with over 8,000 Arab weddings only taking place in the UAE.

A survey conducted in 2008 by IIR Middle East during a Bride’s Show in Dubai revealed that 34 per cent of attendees said they would spend between Dh100,000 to Dh250,000 on their wedding day, 24 per cent said they would spend between Dh250,000 to Dh500,000, while 19 per cent said they are prepared to spend more than half a million on their wedding day.

“The idea started to introduce brides-to-be on what’s available in the market. Some girls didn’t have the experience or the advice on how to plan their wedding or where to start not because there is a lack of services in the market, but because of the many choices that it offers,” said Mareyah. “We set up the website as a directory for those girls providing the answers for all the questions they might have like price, location, special benefits, questions only brides-to-be would ask.”

Free of charge

The website, which is free of charge for the browsing brides-to-be and guests, provides a range of services.

Generic services such as wedding gowns, wedding halls, and beauty treatments are available. In addition to that, available are services unique to the Emirati culture such as the wedding stage, cultural entertainment and wedding hospitality service

“The wedding stage which is called the ‘kosha’ in Arabic did not exist 50 years ago and can be seen as a modern addition to an Emirati wedding,” said Mareyah.

The ‘kosha’, a stage where the bride sits on during the wedding ceremony facing the guests, is highly important in Emirati weddings with brides-to-be competing on getting the most unique and extravagant wedding stage. Prices for some ‘koshas’ toppled over Dh400,000, according to rates from some specialised wedding stage stores.

The website doesn’t only concentrate on linking the girls to the perfect service providers; it even offers tips and methods on various ways of budget control.

“Many girls while planning the wedding blow away their budget while they are still in the process, their mistakes result in over-spending which can jeopardise their wedding plans. Yebab offers the ‘envelope’ service which is a simple way to help girls control their budgets. The 20 envelopes that are sent free to prospective brides to have a budget-controlling schedule and the category of what service this money is reserved for in each envelope. This simple gesture helps a lot of the brides plan their weddings without overspending,” said Ahmad.

Yebab.com is currently partnering with 130 wedding service providers. The Yebab.com team expects twice the amount of partners when the website starts to cater for the Saudi Arabian and Egyptian markets later next year.

Supplied picture

Budget strategy

Emirati girls check the yebab stall during an exhibition. The website helps ?brides-to-be to plan and spend within a budget for their big day.

By Sara Janahi ?Staff Reporter